Eventually, women pushed back against extreme fashions. But not before the grandmother of Cathy Rozman wore an entire parade float:

My grandmother, Mary Svetich Rozman, was 16 years old when she was Queen of the May at the May Day parade in Calumet, Michigan in 1917,” writes Cathy Rozman from Plymouth. “The trick to this float is that she’s standing on a car underneath the giant skirt! Afterward, her family liked to tease her with the nickname ‘Queenie.